fjdog

It's been about 2 weeks and 2 emails and no response from marco. Any other suggestions?

I am contemplating putting some more rock in the tank, mostly for appearances. I want to put more branch in. Would prefer dry, but would consider low-cost live rock (I will probably be bleaching and drying it). Before you ask, I do not want to add any pathogens to my system and I would like to epoxy a structure together for stability. Any suggestions? I already emailed marcorocks with no response. Thanks in advance.

Thanks. It seems to be coming together. The royal gramma went in yesterday and really adds a nice splash of color. As for the rocks, I can't take alot of credit...it was mostly mother nature. The one big piece on the right is really a show stopper.

Well, now I have GSPNO (green star polyps never open). I am not sure what is the cause. The only chemical parameter that might be suspect is the salinity. I always seem to get bubbles on the needle and get a different reading every time. The last reading, after bubbles were knocked off was 1.025, but maybe I will take a water sample in to have it read on a better one.

I guess it might be the coral beauty, cause he is always nipping at the live rock and the GSP might be just incidental to his activities. Anyhow...no worries, I like the coral beauty way better than the GSP. I might move the GSP to my quarantine tank and see if it recovers. Any soft corals out there that might be more coral beauty resistant?

Great, count one more on RSVP and the carpool offer still stands. PM me if interested.

Glad to hear it! Any pics??

I finally got some pics taken. Lucky the Coral Beauty was not posing, so this was the best shot I could get. BTW my lawnmower blenny died today after almost 2 weeks in QT. Heavy breathing, gaping mouth and loss of apetite. The royal gramma is still hanging in and looking good. He'll be in QT for a little longer than expected though!

Have been viewing the site for awhile so i thought i would go ahead and jump in. My name is Steve' date=' we started our tank in April of 04 (actually it was supposed to be my wifes tank) its a 180 gal reef and did not go well at first. After the first 2 years and much frustration I was ready to give up, instead I moved it to a different location in the house, started over and things took off now we enjoy it very much. when I'm allowed I'll post some pictures[/quote']

 

Perhaps you can go into some more detail on what you are doing the second time around to make things more successful. Those just starting out can always benefit from the tribulations of others! Thanks in advance.

George Morlan has some gate valves at their Salem store, but their salespeople do not know it and will vehemently deny they have such item until you walk them down their own isles and point to them. I got a .75" and a 1" there. I would assume they also have 1.25".

Has anyone RSVP'ed? I would be interested in meeting some more local folks, but do not want to drive to Albany and sit in Elmer's alone. Anyone from Salem want to carpool down with me?

GSPAO....Show off!!

My tang is killing GSP by constantly nipping at the polyps.

She's done away with patches on two rocks so far, and is working on the last patch of GSP growing on the overflow...

She also nipped the polyps off a large leather, which is now much happier in the 60G cube!

Will you loan me your tang (the enforcer)? I'm getting pissed at the GSP as they are still pulling their tentacles in during my prime viewing time but still expanding their purple mat over the rock! Aargh! Perhaps corals are not in my future!!!!! GSP is supposed to be one of the easiest to keep.

So I was surfing the internet the other day for creative diy ideas for improving water flow and I ran across a tank build that involved coating the entire floor of the aquarium with garf agrocrete. The idea is that it would harbor anaerobic bacteria without collecting the detritus of a normal deep sand bed over time. In this build. the agrocrete was then covered with a thin layer of sand to disguise it. This made sense to me, but I wonder if anyone had tried it from the club. My idea would be to mould custom fit diy rock "bricks" and kure them separately from my system. Then I would install them in my running tank after they are fully stablized. What do you think?

I have a clown, coral beauty and cleaner shrimp. I have never seen the coral beauty take a nip from them yet though it may be a possibility (when I'm not looking)(scratch)

Hi all, I am new to corals in general and bought a small green star polyp frag and put it in the tank about 3 weeks ago. It has attached to the rock and seems to be growing, but the polyps retract in the afternoon and evening. At night and when the lights first come on in the morning, the tentacles are fully expanded. Is this normal behavior or is there something weird about my system that is causing this. In the store, they always seem to be expanded. Any suggestions? For reference, the frags are under t5 lighting about 12 inches down in the water profile. Also all chemical tests came out with favorable results (I usually do testing in the evening).

I've done a freshwater dip on all of the fish in my tanks except for the gobies. I've read that its to much for the gobies' date=' and they are disease resistant to start. Haven't lost a fish to it, the first few times I did it were short, in the minute range or so because the fish dont like it and I freaked out. The last fish i dipped was getting close to five minutes, probably not quite. Some fish are visibly affected and fall on their side gasping in a few minutes, which is when I get them out. Some fish seemed like they could last forever and arent visibly affected. I use DI/DO water adjusted to same PH as tank, and enough drops of methylene blue to turn the water blue. I've read that if you dont do anything else to your new fish, freshwater dip them. Better QT for four weeks and freshwater dip. Bob Fenners book The Conscientous (sp?) Marine Aquarist.[/quote']

 

Yeah, this is where I first read it recommended. He also recommends caulerpa though and it seems many people are moving away from this algae. There are many different viewpoints from many different "experts" on many different things. I just like to take the information and make informed decisions.

Octo's look kinda cool to.

 

FJDog, do you have the recirculating 150 or the regular one?

 

Any one think the recirculating one is worth an extra hundred bucks? I already have a T on my return so could use it as a feed pump, and kind of like that you can run it out of sump as well.

Mine is the regular one (non-recirc). I think if I had it to do over again, I might consider recirc because you can squeeze more out of a smaller footprint and also potentially less noise, because you are running a smaller pump. Other than that, I have no first hand experience on the benefits of one vs another. Just for reference, I think I got mine for $125 plus shipping, so there is a pretty big price difference. Also, I like the threaded scum cup. It is great for height-challenged stands; might be a feature to look for.

I wanted to find out what the opinion of a freshwater dip for new fish additions was.

After reading a bunch of aquarium-related material, it is clear that there are many advocates for the quarantine tank (and a few oponents). This said, I set up a 20 gal in the garage for my latest purchase and it seems to be going well, except for the fact that it is a PITA to upkeep two tanks, especially with the frequent water changes.

Now, I have also read that some folks will do a final freshwater dip to reduce parasite load when introducing any new fish. It seems that if the fish is doing well in quarantine and does not show any signs of illness or parasite infection, this is a bit of overkill. Also, if you are trying to acclimate a fish to new water parameters by doing a drip acclimation, doesn't the freshwater dip kind-of represent an extreme acclimation stress? Does not really make a lot of sense to me, but I am still somewhat of a newbee.

I got an octopus NW 150 for my 65 gallon. It is similar in design to the other needlewheels. I would recommend it, especially for the money. If you go this way, I would also recommend you get (or make) the gate valve mod. The adjustment tube was difficult to get right consistently. It's a little tight under a 65 gal (takes up a bunch of sump room), so if space is a concern, you might consider a smaller sized recirc model.

Just an update. Good news. I have kept a false perc clown (Nemo, of course) and a common cleaner shrimp (Jacques, of corse) alive for 4 weeks now. They are both doing great and growing. Also added a small green star polyp frag. I have a coral beauty in quarantine who is also doing real well, eating great and looking healthy. Should be ready to go into the display this weekend. Patience sure is important in this hobby!

Are bristleworms all pretty much safe except for the fireworm with the big red bristles? I had one that my lfs gave me but I chickened out on putting it in the tank because it was about 2-3 inches and I heard so many bad things about the bristleworms. After more reading, it looks like there is mainly one species that causes problems with corals. I may be wierd, but I think they are pretty cool looking myself! Here's a picture of what I had.

Happy holidays everyone and sorry I was not able to make the party. I have been searching for a couple of good detritus-eating critters to keep up with all of the droppings from my turbo snails, but come up with lots of pros and cons for each one? What are the PNWMAS member opinions on adding the following in a fish/invert/soft coral tank? I've been vacuuming the top of the sand during water changes, but would like to do this less often!

Serpent stars

Brittle stars

Micro brittle stars (like those sold by liveaquatix.com)

Bristle worms

Nassarius snails

Bumble bee snails

Any others?

I got my two #1's in about a week ago. I too will say that they are surprisingly silent (or at least much quieter than the aquaclear 70 I used to have in there, which was fairly quiet). The water movement seems to be OK, but not as directed as the powerhead, so it's hard to compare the two.

More yuck! The damsels both died last thursday and friday (about 1 week after the gramma). The symptoms were just spots of light coloration. One of them seemed to have a distended light colored mouth on one side. Here's some pics (some are from before the fish seemed really sick).

So my question, is should I keep it fish free for some period of time to let the disease(?) clear? All of the other organisms seem fine (snails and hermits). Or is it that I probably got bad (stressed) fish to start with and that I should not worry. All nitrates, nitrates, ammonia, pH tested fine.

Also, I have noticed a bunch of white barely visible organisms on the glass (maybe 1/2 mm in length), that if you look at them carefully have two small tails and move every once in a while. What do you think they are?

Great, thanks!

After still a no show at feeding time today, I got in and stuck a powerhead into the liverock. Well, the gramma came out, but in many little pieces. Looks like he had been dead in there for a while. I suspect he died of non-damsel related causes, but might take them out anyway to introduce other fish.